The Last Marauder
by JoshMCo
Summary: The Battle of Hogwarts has reached its breaking point. The one-hour armistice is almost over, and Harry is about to make the noble sacrifice he has to. In his wake, he leaves a trail of deaths, and grief-stricken friends and family of those lost. One man remembers the beginnings, and the ends of loved ones. Oneshot. Please Review.


The man wandered the empty halls, eyes scanning the rubble-strewn walls. This had been his _school._ He had worked here. He'd lived here, and loved here... And now it was destroyed. Two bodies were lain on raggy mats, and the one-hour armistice was about to finish. Harry Potter was leaving the hall, under the protection of the Invisibility Cloak, left to him by Dumbledore. The man sighed, knowing he couldn't intervene. His eyes scanned the various faces around the hall. The orbs rested upon the Weasley family, sobbing quietly over the body of their son, Fred. George was sat a little away, his tears subsided, but pain still very obvious on his youthful face. So young, Fred had been. 21. The man looked down. The Potters had died at the same age, and that was why everyone was here. Why everyone was dying. The man knew, however, that, without their deaths, the magical population would be beneath the dictatorship of Lord Voldemort, and the muggle population would be enslaved. The man's deathly pale hands rubbed his face, and hot tears trickled down cold flesh. James Potter. The man had known that name as a friend, once. Now, it was simply a legacy. One-half of the creators of the face of the war. Sirius Black. Again, once a friend. Twelve years a murderer, as the wizarding population had seen him as. The man himself had believed it such. Peter Pettigrew. Someone the man regretted knowing as a friend. The real killer of the Potter's, and the one who'd paid the most. Voldemort had delivered the curses, but Pettigrew broke the trust that they held sacred. Those three made up what everyone saw as the 'True Marauders'. While everyone had swooned over Potter and Black, and laughed at and exploited Pettigrew, Lupin had sat reading. And Lupin was dead, or at least the body told him. Lupin had lived the longest of all the Marauders, though his life was cut short, leaving behind a child, as his wife's flame had been snuffed out, too. The man looked down at her body, the hair still lightly pink, though mud destroyed the vibrance of it. The man saw them all now. Potter, Black, Pettigrew, Fred, Nymphadora, McKinnon, Meadowes, Vance... Everyone who'd died. His gaze turned to the figure next to James, and the man's breath hitched in his throat. Lily Potter. His eyes closed. Her ghostly figure entranced him, and he felt hot tears down his pale cheek. "You've been very brave..." She whispered to him. "Very brave. You have to come with us, now..." She told him, a sad, soft smile on her face.  
>"She's right... Sorry, mate..." James told him, no trace of a smile on his face.<br>"Remus..." Nymphadora whispered to him. Tears flowed fast now, and his own ghostly figure shook. He knew none of the people in the hall could see them.  
>"Our son... My love, I'm sorry." He sobbed, running his hands down his face.<br>"He will be cared for, Remus." Meadowes told him. Dorcas Meadowes, the voice of reason in a chaotic time.  
>"You should have lived, Rem. You should have been the one to live, out of all of us." McKinnon said, a sad humour in her voice. Marlene McKinnon. The joker of the Order.<br>"Moony." Black said softly, and Remus turned to greet his old friend. "Hello again." He said. Remus had last seen him as Sirius floated into the veil, and he remembered the gut-wrenching pain of it.  
>"James... Lily... Harry. I failed him... I haven't protected him." Remus sniffed, looking down. He couldn't meet her.<br>"You protected him. He'd be dead if not for you." Fred butted in. Fred Weasley. His jokes had lit up the atmosphere in the Order, especially after Dumbledore's death.  
>"Remus..." Vance smiled softly. Emmeline Vance.<br>"I didn't know you were dead." Remus said, gulping. "N-No-one told me."  
>"I know... It's alright now... We're here..." Emmeline said, smiling.<br>"Moony. We have to go." Sirius said, and Remus nodded.  
>"Take me." Remus said. The ghosts faded, and none were any the wiser. Remus' body lay still on the floor of the Great Hall, and the last Marauder departed"You alright?" A soft question reached his ears. Remus turned his head to see Lily looking at him, just after having left Slughorn's classroom. She looked out into the dark corridors, where tinsel was strewn artfully around. Her perfect green eyes turned to look at him once more, her expression mildly happy.<br>"Erm, yeah." Remus smiled softly. "I'm alright. How are you, Lily?" He asked, with a rather soft voice.


End file.
